Edith M. Lederer
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS: Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said Thursday a recent series of bombings and terror attacks that killed dozens of people amounts to genocide and crimes against humanity and should be punished under international law. In a speech to the UN General Assembly, Talabani reiterated his call for the Security Council to authorize an international probe into the attacks in Iraq which he said could not have been carried out without outside support.
“We are looking to the assistance of the international community and its support for the Iraqi position on the formation of an independent international commission to investigate the crimes of terrorism against the Iraqi people and to consider it a genocide,” Talabani said.
Talabani addressed world leaders on a day that Iraq’s premier, Nouri al-Maliki, again claimed that Syria continued to harbor Iraqi insurgents. He said chances were “nearly hopeless” to resolve disputes with Syria over claims it is providing refuge for Saddam Hussein loyalists blamed for a pair of truck bombings on August 19 that killed about 100 people in Baghdad.
“The real danger currently facing Iraq is outside interference in its internal affairs which has committed the worst crimes against innocent Iraqis from various segments of society, men, women, children and the elderly,” Talabani said.
Earlier this month, Maliki asked the Security Council to probe recent bombings outside two government buildings in Baghdad and to prosecute the alleged perpetrators. The council has taken no action yet.
Iraq has blamed an alliance between Al-Qaeda in Iraq and Saddam’s outlawed Baath Party for the truck bombings outside the Foreign and Finance ministries. Iraq wants Syria to hand over several suspects it says are based there.
“We believe these acts at this level of organization, complexity and magnitude cannot be planned, funded and implemented without support of external forces and parties, and primary investigations indicate the involvement of external parties in the process,” Talabani said.
He said Iraq put the issue before the Security Council in order to form an independent investigative tribunal outside Iraqi jurisdiction. The Iraqi government, he said, was obliged to turn to the UN to “stop the bleeding of innocent Iraqis.”
Iraqi forces catch three escaped Al-Qaeda fighters
Mahmud Saleh
Agence France Presse
TIKRIT, Iraq: Iraqi security forces recaptured three Al-Qaeda militants on Friday, police said, two days after a daring breakout which officials believe was an inside job.
Among those arrested was the apparent ringleader of a 16-strong group of escapees, 12 of whom are still at large.
Meanwhile, about 100 guards and staff at the prison in Tikrit, capital of Salaheddin Province north of Baghdad, were being questioned.
“Early this morning, our forces arrested Waleed Ayash, one of the Al-Qaeda members who escaped from Tikrit prison Wednesday evening,” said a high-ranking police officer in the province, who declined to be identified because he was not authorized to speak to the media.
“Ayash planned the prisoner escape,” he said, adding that the 34-year-old had been handed four death sentences for “dozens of crimes against police and military members, as well as civilians.” The officer said two other men were arrested in the same Albo Ajeel area, 15 kilometers east of Tikrit, where Ayash had been caught.
The 16 men broke out of the prison, a former presidential palace, in Saddam Hussein’s hometown by fleeing through a window and scaling a ladder to climb over the prison wall.
One of them had already been recaptured early on Thursday.
Hundreds of policemen and soldiers were deployed on Tikrit’s streets, while checkpoints were reinforced and security along Iraq’s border with Syria was stepped up.
Forces in neighboring cities such as Samarra were also on heightened alert.
About 100 prison guards and staff are being questioned in connection with the breakout, the area’s provincial governor told AFP, blaming collusion or negligence for the security breach.
“We suspect that they had accomplices inside [the prison] because there was such a high number of fugitives,” said Governor Mutashar Hussein Elewi.
“Either that or there was some kind of negligence in the administration of the prison.” Interior Minister Jawad Bolani issued the order to put guards and other prison workers under detention for questioning, Elewi said.
“They were not all around at the time but we have to punish those that did not do their job,” he added.
In the aftermath of the escape, the head of the province’s police-controlled anti-terror force, Colonel Mohammed Salah al-Juburi, was fired, a police source said.
Interior Ministry spokesman Major General Abdel-Karim Khalaf said several local security officers responsible for prisoner surveillance were arrested in connection with the escape, but he declined to specify how many.
The prisoners had only been transferred to the jail, which is run by the interior ministry, earlier on Wednesday evening, a police source said.
The US Army said it provided military dogs at the request of Iraqi authorities to search the vicinity of the jail.
“We have also provided aerial surveillance to assist with the search of the city and outerlying areas,” said spokesman Major Derrick Cheng.
Posters with the pictures of the fugitives were distributed across Tikrit and the province.
Iraq’s prison system divides responsibility between the ministries of justice, interior and defense, with each of them running various detention facilities.
Tikrit, a predominantly Sunni Arab town 180 kilometers from Baghdad, was home to now executed dictator Saddam and many of his henchmen.
US military commanders admit Al-Qaeda remains a threat in Iraq but insist that its attempts to establish an Islamic caliphate in the war-torn country have failed.
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